Nerves projecting from the intrinsic cardiac ganglia of the pulmonary veins modulate sinoatrial node pacemaker function
Rationale: Autonomic nerves from sinoatrial node (SAN) ganglia are known to regulate SAN function. However, it is unclear whether remote pulmonary vein ganglia (PVG) also modulate SAN pacemaker rhythm. Objective: To investigate whether in the mouse heart PVG modulate SAN function. Methods and Results: In hearts from 45 C57BL and 7 Connexin40+/GFP mice, we used tyrosine-hydroxylase (TH) and choline-acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunofluorescence labeling to characterize adrenergic and cholinergic elements, repectively, within the PVG and SAN. PVG project postganglionic nerves to the SAN. TH and ChAT stained nerves, enter the SAN as an extensive, dense mesh-like neural network. Neurons in PVG are…
Cardiac electrical defects in progeroid mice and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome patients with nuclear lamina alterations
This work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) Grants SAF2010-16044 and SAF2013-46663-R (to V.A.), SAF2011-30312 and SAF2014-58286-C2-1-R (to L.H.-M.), SAF2011-30088 (to E.D.), and SAF2014-52413-R (to C.L.-O.) and Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria del Instituto de Salud Carlos III Grants RD12/0042/0028 (to V.A.), RD12/0042/0011 (to J.T.), and RD12/0042/0002 (to L.H.-M.), with cofunding from the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional and the Progeria Research Foundation. J.A.G. is the recipient of a U-Mobility Grant from the Marie Curie cofunding of Regional, National and International Programme (Grant 246550). The Instituto Universitario de Oncología is sup…
Ventricular Tachycardia and Early Fibrillation in Patients With Brugada Syndrome and Ischemic Cardiomyopathy Show Predictable Frequency-Phase Properties on the Precordial ECG Consistent With the Respective Arrhythmogenic Substrate
[EN] Background¿ Ventricular fibrillation (VF) has been proposed to be maintained by localized high-frequency sources. We tested whether spectral-phase analysis of the precordial ECG enabled identification of periodic activation patterns generated by such sources. Methods and Results¿Precordial ECGs were recorded from 15 ischemic cardiomyopathy and 15 Brugada syndrome (type 1 ECG) patients during induced VF and analyzed in the frequency-phase domain. Despite temporal variability, induced VF episodes lasting 19.6±7.9 s displayed distinctly high power at a common frequency (shared frequency, 5.7±1.1 Hz) in all leads about half of the time. In patients with Brugada syndrome, phase analysis of …
Factors affecting basket catheter detection of real and phantom rotors in the atria: A computational study
[EN] Anatomically based procedures to ablate atrial fibrillation (AF) are often successful in terminating paroxysmal AF. However, the ability to terminate persistent AF remains disappointing. New mechanistic approaches use multiple-electrode basket catheter mapping to localize and target AF drivers in the form of rotors but significant concerns remain about their accuracy. We aimed to evaluate how electrode-endocardium distance, far-field sources and inter-electrode distance affect the accuracy of localizing rotors. Sustained rotor activation of the atria was simulated numerically and mapped using a virtual basket catheter with varying electrode densities placed at different positions withi…